PEORIA, Ariz. — The Peoria Unified School Board showed concern during a Sept. 10 board meeting at the Peoria Unified District Administration Center regarding student safety and wellness following a presentation of outcomes from the 2025-2026 school year given by the interim district superintendent.

The Interim Superintendent Tahlya Visintainer addressed multiple aspects of a student success model that included resources and successes related to learning and teaching, parent and community engagement, stewardship of resources, and student safety and wellness.

Although Visintainer and her colleagues highlighted successful outcomes from the previous school year, they were overlooked by the board’s uncertainty of how student-perceived safety and wellness was being measured and if it was even quantifiable in the presentation. 

Comments from the previous Aug. 27 meeting addressed recent concerns of how the district handled mandatory reporting regarding alleged predatory behavior by teachers from multiple schools like Centennial High School, Peoria High School and Sun Valley Elementary School.

The instances at Centennial High School and Sun Valley Elementary School happened following the 2024 arrest of Peoria High School Varsity Basketball coach and Phoenix Suns superfan Patrick Battillo for alleged child sex crimes.

Peoria High School teacher Holly Holgate was also arrested and charged with hindering prosecution and failing to report child abuse or neglect after allegedly tipping Batillio off to the allegations. 

Battillo was recently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and lifetime supervised probation for counts of luring a minor for sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking.

“My heart goes out to the students and teachers in PUSD,” Peoria City Council Member Jennifer Crawford said in an interview prior to the Thursday meeting.

Crawford said that she hopes the media impact of these allegations does not trickle down to harm students and teachers at the district.

“I think that's something that PUSD can strive to work toward,” Crawford said, “is how to control that messaging.” 

Board Member Janelle Bowles questioned Visintainer if a mandatory reporting form for teachers had ever been mandated or provided to fill out in the event of an instance of predatory or dangerous behavior. 

Visintainer said that the district had not implemented such a form until the 2025-2026 school year.

Ironwood High School science teacher Trina Berg also highlighted that the safety and wellness survey filled out by students is too vague and doesn’t allow any place for teachers to address any problems a student may be having.

“I think follow-up questions based on their answers would be helpful,” Berg said. “We don't know what we need to fix if we don't know what we need to fix.”

Further, Berg added that it is frustrating that no one has yet been held accountable in court for these incidents involving media coverage of PUSD teachers and the role they play for students. 

She also highlighted a difference between unprofessional behaviors and predatory behaviors.

“There were things that were reported—but there is a difference between ‘this is an unprofessional’ behavior versus ‘predatory’ behavior,” Berg said. “And some of the things that were reported were unprofessional behaviors.”

To Berg, there is only so much teachers can do to reaffirm safety in the classroom after incidents like those occurring in PUSD.

“Can we always learn more on how to recognize those? Sure. But also, predators are predators for a reason,” Berg said. 

“It's not just how many initiatives we implement at the end of the day," Chief Communications Officer for PUSD Danielle Airey said following the meeting. “The first thing that we have to focus on is getting feedback from our students.”

One way Airey said the district gets feedback from students is by holding monthly meetings with student body presidents from each PUSD high school, where they can share their thoughts and perspectives on district issues and how their student bodies could be supported.

According to Airey, the district also prints a tip line on the back of school-issued student IDs.

“Continuing to provide them with additional ways that they can reach out with a concern will always be really important to us,” Airey said.